I closed the trunk and checked the rear bumper, a habit born of recent experience. The license plate was there as it should be, its six letters announcing my fate and my standing to the world.
NT GLTY
I got in my car and drove home to shelter.
Acknowledgments
The author gratefully acknowledges the help of many people in the research, writing, and editing of this novel. They include Asya Muchnick, Bill Massey, Emad Akhtar, Pamela Marshall, Betsy Uhrig, Terrill Lee Lankford, Rick Jackson, Linda Connelly, Jane Davis, Heather Rizzo, Dennis Wojciechowski, and John Houghton. A great debt of thanks goes to legal eagle Dan Daly as well as Roger Mills, Rachel Bowers, and Greg Hoegee.